Amanda Grange - Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

‘That I do not know. I know only that it is set on a cliff in a green hollow, with the sea in front and a greater cliff behind and a tree growing above it. I know of three temples close by but none of them are like this. They have the sea, or the cliffs, or the hollow, but not all three, and I know of no temple with a tree close at hand.’

‘And yet it is familiar, what you describe,’ said Darcy thoughtfully. ‘I think I have seen this place, some ten miles to the northwest of here.’

Nicolei frowned, as though trying to recall the place of which Darcy spoke. Then his brow smoothed and he nodded, but he said, ‘I know the place you speak of, but it is not a Roman temple; it is the ruin of a monastery.’

‘But beneath it there is a temple,’ said Darcy. ‘I found it when playing there once as a boy. I fell through the floor of the monastery when exploring the cellars and found myself in a strange place ringed about with columns and statues. It was very old and I am sure it was a temple. The statues seemed to be of the Roman gods.’

‘This, then, might be the place,’ said Nicolei cautiously. ‘If so, the chamber you seek will be there somewhere underneath.’

‘Then I must go there. I saw no way down at the time, but there may be one, hidden,’ said Darcy, taking his arm from around Elizabeth’s waist.

‘I will go with you,’ she said.

‘No,’ said Darcy. ‘You heard Nicolei; it will be dangerous.’ When she was about to protest, he said, ‘You cannot come with me. There is more than just my desire to protect you at work here, there is fate, too. Remember the castle, Lizzy. Remember the axe. Remember when it fell from the wall, and the meaning of the portent, that you would cause my death. You cannot come with me, my love. I must go alone.’

Elizabeth thought back to the days at the Count’s castle. How long ago they seemed. She remembered the axe falling and landing closer to Darcy than to herself, and Annie telling her about the talk in the servants’ hall, saying that the axe falling meant that she was to cause Darcy’s death.

‘But that was idle superstition,’ she said, though her voice was uncertain. ‘You said so yourself.’ She saw his expression change and realised, ‘You said it to comfort me.’

‘Yes, I did,’ he admitted.

‘Then you believe the portent.’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘but I would rather not put it to the test.’

‘And yet you do not really know what the portent means,’ said Nicolei unexpectedly. ‘Portents are wonderful things, but they do not speak to us openly; they speak to us in mysterious ways.’

He looked from Elizabeth to Darcy thoughtfully.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Elizabeth.

‘I mean that a portent, if it is true, will come to pass whatever steps are taken to avoid it. And if it is not true, then it will not affect the future, whatever is done.’ He turned to Darcy. ‘If your wife is to cause your death, how do you know that she will cause it by going with you? Might she not cause it by staying away?’

Elizabeth and Darcy looked at each other intently and then Elizabeth said, ‘I am coming with you,’ and this time Darcy did not argue. But still his face was troubled.

‘And I too,’ said Nicolei, ‘with my son, Georgio, to help me, I will come with you. My fate is bound up with yours, Old One. This, I believe, is my destiny.’

Darcy was reluctant but at last he agreed, “Though you will have to travel in the cart which brought you here as I have no carriage at the lodge,’ Darcy told him.

‘I understand,’ he said.

Darcy went over to the bell. When it was answered, he gave instructions for the cart to be readied and the horses to pull it. Elizabeth added her own instructions for some quilts to be put in the cart to soften it and some blankets added for warmth.

Then, turning to Nicolei, Darcy said, ‘You have had a long journey to get here. When was the last time you had anything to eat?’

‘Many hours ago,’ said the old man.

‘Then you must have something now, and Georgio must have something too before we go.’

‘Thank you,’ said Nicolei.

He rose to his feet with the help of his son, and Georgio helped him from the room. He turned at the door and said, ‘We will be ready as soon as the horses are harnessed.’

When he had gone, Darcy turned to Elizabeth and said, ‘Fetch your cloak, my love. We will be travelling for some time and the wind is cold.’

Elizabeth nodded but then said suddenly, ‘Are you sure this is what you really want?’ She looked at him searchingly. ‘Nicolei was right. I had not thought of it before, but you have great wonders in your life. If you rid yourself of the curse, you will rid yourself of them, too. You will no longer see and hear and feel things so richly or keenly or deeply, and you will lose your immortality. You will no longer be ageless. You will grow old and die.’

He took her face in his hands and said, ‘I would gladly swap eternity for one moment with you.’

She gave a long, shuddering sigh, and then he kissed her, a slow lingering kiss, a honeyed meeting of mouths and hearts and spirits, and when he let her go she knew there was no turning back.

She stepped unwillingly out of his arms and went upstairs to fetch her cloak. As she did so, she caught sight of her writing table. She hesitated and then sat down and began writing quickly, in an uneven hand.

My dearest Jane,

I have written you many letters during the course of my honeymoon, expecting them all to be sent, and yet none of them were ever posted. This letter I write hoping it will never leave my writing desk, unless I throw it into the fire at last, but I am going into danger and I mean to give my maid instructions to post this letter if I do not return.

Oh, Jane! If I could only tell you half the things that have happened to me since leaving Longbourn. There have been many difficult and frightening things in my life, but there has been much of great beauty, too: the dread and aweful majesty of the Alps as Darcy and I rode over their snow-capped heights; the peaceful tranquillity of Piedmont; the great river Brenta with its weeping willows trailing their branches in the water; Venice rising like a dream from the lagoon, basking in the morning sunlight, ageless and timeless and serene. And the people: Philippe with his gallantry and Gustav with his irrepressible good humour, and Sophia with her ancient dresses and her love for her city. And her memories: the rise of the merchant princes; the building of the palaces; the creation of the sculptures; the paintings and the poetry; the journeys of the great explorers; the triumphs of Marco Polo with whom she spoke and danced. Yes, Jane, she knew him, and she still sings and dances, though he has long since turned to dust. She is a custodian of all things past, she and others like her, and my dear Darcy is a custodian too—a custodian, a guardian, and a protector: one of the timeless ones. My dearest Darcy is a vampyre. And yet he intends to rid himself of his curse and his blessing for me.

He is going on a dark and dangerous path and I am going with him. How long we will be away I do not know, nor if we will ever return. But I love him with all my heart and where he goes, I go. Think of me often if you never see me again, and call one of your children after me! Not your firstborn; she must be Jane like her mother, but the second, unless it is a boy and then Elizabeth will not do!

Oh, Jane, how good it is to talk to you, even though you are so far away. Even in a dark and dangerous time, I feel lighter of spirit just thinking of you.

I must go. I hear the horses below. But I could not leave without letting you know the truth of my life. If I return, I might never tell you. But if I die in some underground chamber then it will comfort me to think that you will know the truth, you who have always known everything about me, and that you will know the truth about my dearest Darcy, too.